43% = Lie

John Kasich’s latest commercial trying to convince Ohioans to support Issue 2 is the second in a row to cite a debunked report and continues to blatantly LIE when it claims that “Government employees make 43% more in wages and benefits than the rest of us.”

First of all, we accept that Kasich and Building a Better Ohio will lie, but their inaccuracy in doing so is maddening. Before we explain the lies that comprise it, the fallacious reportactually claims that public employees make 31.2% more than what that employee might receive in the private sector:

We have shown above that Ohio public employees receive compensation approximately 31.2 percent higher than they would be likely to receive in alternate private?sector employment.

(Biggs & Richwine, AEI)

To reach the inflated 43% number that Better Ohio keeps trotting out in the commercials, they include a “job security” factor that, to our knowledge, does not show up on any paycheck in the state of Ohio, private OR public:

If the wage and benefit premium totals 31.2 percent, including a job security premium of 9.3 percent increases total compensation to 43.4 percent above market rates.

(Biggs & Richwine, AEI)

If you find that additional 12% in your pay, please feel free to mail it in to us. Or at least use it to buy a PlunderTee.

The aforementioned report was issued on September 14, a full 8.5 months after the introduction of Senate Bill 5, after being commissioned by the Ohio Business Roundtable, a group that describes itself as:

The Ohio Business Roundtable (BRT) is a partnership of the chief executives of the state’s major businesses who represent all sectors of the economy and are committed to working with public leaders to build a better Ohio….the CEOs, representing companies in all fields, can present a cross-section of thinking on critical statewide issues. The BRT is highly selective in the issues it addresses – either directly or through its several affiliates.

Their report was in direct, though delayed, response to a report released by a Rutgers University professor, Jeffrey Keefe, 8 months earlier (February 10). Keefe’s study, researched and published prior to the statewide battle over Senate Bill 5/Issue 2, found that:

…full-time Ohio state and local public employees earn 3.3 percent less in wages and salaries than similar private sector workers and 3.5 percent less in total compensation.

Further, since his research was directly attacked and his methodology called in to question, Keefe extensively reviewed Biggs & Richwine’s study and was actually unable to replicate many of their numerical calculations. And since they did not release all of their methodology, we can’t either. We do, however, want to share with you the Dr. Keefe’s latest findings so that Ohioans can become better educated, over the obvious objections of Building a Better Ohio (note that in their latest ad, they oppose “betterness”).

The analysis presented in this new EPI (Keefe’s) paper demonstrates that the criticisms that the earlier research failed to account for retiree health benefits, guaranteed pension benefits, and employment security is erroneous. The prior research has accounted for these issues, and represents a much more accurate assessment of public employee compensation costs, as summarized below.

There is no evidence for Biggs and Richwine’s job stability premium for public-sector workers

We HIGHLY recommend that you read these reports on your own, especially Keefe’s rebuttal, to better equip yourself to respond to the 43% lie that is permeating the airwaves and gaining traction with undecided voters.

And remember to point out that they even lied about the results of their OWN fabricated data. Seriously, 31% wouldn’t have been bad enough?

Any way you turn it, the use of 43% is untrue, fictional, inaccurate, deceptive, counterfactual, treacherous, a sham.

They lie; they win elections; they break stuff; they great that it is broken; people finally get it; lather, rinse, repeat.

NO ON 2.

Anonymous

Anyone ever explore the idea that the buckeye institute / josh mandel salary website puts undercover police officer’s lives in danger? I mean it publishes with a click or two, full names, salaries and where they work. With that little bit of info it is pretty easy to look up tax records and confirm home addresses and other personal information.

I realize it is all public record, but you used to have to jump through a lot of hoops to get it.

Its a plausible scenario that some heroin dealer may recognize a buyer/undercover cop as somebody he knew from high school, look up their name and confirm their employment status via the buckeye institute’s website.

….just more shady tactics from the right.

Tarfam325

Nobody in the private sector will ever see these numbers, though. These people are convincing, calculating LIARS…and people ARE believing their numbers. We have not provided REAL counter-figures in any “Vote NO” commercials and people believe numbers. Our message while extremely important has been unwaveringly that Public Employees’ collective bargaining rights are what make our cities safe and our schools good. While TRUE the people who work in the private sector are opposed to these rights, to a certain extent and the 3 talking points have been hammered to death: “all we are asking is that they pay their fair share of health care: 15% and 10% of their pension…” People are supporting this and their lies have not been combatted so people are believing their numbers are accurate and these seem like reasonable requests. Never mind that these 3 issues are contained in less than 7 pages of a 300+ pages bill that will save the state of Ohio NO real money…no one is asking or exposing what is in the other 293+ pages of the bill that they are trying to railroad through… The fight NEEDS to change over the next several days and their lies and inaccuracies NEED to be exposed… someone from Plunderbund should have represented us in that debate last night on NBC stations… really, this site has exposed so many untruths and has provided so much factual information that makes the issue so clear… but if people are not visiting this site…they may not be getting this information. Plunderbund needs to produce the next commercial with FACTUAL, real information that exposes these lies and many of the other horrible legislative ideas hidden in Issue 2.

Anonymous

Building a Butthurt Ohio.

Anonymous

You make me laugh. February 10, 2011. Do you EVER verify your sources?

Anonymous

You make me laugh. February 10, 2011. Do you EVER verify your sources?

MissingOhio

I think that it is ridiculous that they publish salaries with no description of job duties. This is a disgusting tactic by the administration to demonize hardworking, taxpaying, citizens. What is so unfortunate is that they are just exposing supposed gross income numbers — no thought around the duties or responsibilities that are tied to this compensation. I just looked at my sisters’ compensation, and am appalled at how little she makes given the level of responsibility she holds not only as a manager, but also the job itself. What’s more is that the level of committment she has towards her work is inspiring — clearly, people like her are completely undervalued by her “boss” (The Gov).

I have told her for years to leave and go make some REAL money in private industry. Now that I have seen what they “say” her salary is, I am mortified. She is significantly underpaid compared to her private industry counterparts.

The Governor should be ashamed of himself claiming public employees make more than their private sector counterparts because its a load of bunk.

What I think we need to do if
there is another debate is when they tell their 43% lie, we should have
a couple of guys cart in boxes full of actual pay stubs and tell the
lying SOB —>” Here are the current pay stubs of thousands
of public employees from across the state, can you show us the
employees that you claim make 43% more in pay and benefits and also this HUGE number of employees that you claim do not pay anything for health care and
pensions. It should be easy. Go on. If you can’t, you need to ADMIT to
the people of Ohio that you are LYING to them. Furthermore, you, Gov Kasich, Jason Mauk and
everyone at Building a Better Ohio should take out full front page ads in all the newspapers apologizing to the citizens of this great
state. I also call on Gov Kasich and all the legislators who rammed
through SB5, to resign from office immediately, forfeiting any further compensation and benefits since they have broken the public’s trust.”